I'm going to get on my soap box, but make it brief. I think it's ridiculous to think about merit pay for teachers based on their students' performances on standardized tests! I know, I know, you expect me to be accountable for my students...and I am. But to base my excellence on another human's ability to perform under the stress/pressure that comes with tests like that is ludicrous! Let's not even factor in all the possible scenarios that enter the classroom with the student....hunger from not eating since lunch the previous day, weariness from lack of sleep b/c of awful home environments, worry/fear of what awaits them at home, hormonal anger that is blocking clear thoughts from the brain, hormonal anything, test-taking "freeze", undiagnosed learning disorders, any learning disorder, lack of parental involvement/support, etc. etc. etc.
I am by no means making excuses...I am accountable for what my students learn. I work hard every day. But the fact of the matter is, no matter what I do, how hard I try, what changes I make, there are students who simply won't pass b/c of their attitude or lack of knowledge (for various factors).
If I could allow you to teach in my classroom (or any classroom) for a span of a couple of months, I would be more than happy to do so! Maybe then you might begin to understand why teachers should not be held accountable solely on achievement of standardized tests!
Thank you. :-)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Refreshing
I have been loving having the windows open the past 2 days! Fresh air flowing through the house after months and months of stagnant air is so refreshing!
It's got me thinking...is there anywhere in the country that has 70-80 degree weather all year???? Wouldn't that be beyond fabulous! No need for air conditioning, no need for heat. A breeze blowing through your house on any given day. Ahhh...lovely!
Of course, I would miss the snowball and hot, pool-splashing weather...but that's what a car is for. :-)
It's got me thinking...is there anywhere in the country that has 70-80 degree weather all year???? Wouldn't that be beyond fabulous! No need for air conditioning, no need for heat. A breeze blowing through your house on any given day. Ahhh...lovely!
Of course, I would miss the snowball and hot, pool-splashing weather...but that's what a car is for. :-)
Friday, March 6, 2009
1-year appointment
Jeremy took Layla to her 1-year appointment today. Our goal weight was 18lbs. That would keep us on track with what the specialist is wanting to see.
Head - 44 cm (if I remember correctly)
Height - 27 1/4 in. (not a lot of growth here...actually, according to the measurements at the specialist's a month ago she has lost 3/4in. in height...something's not correct b/c I'm positive she isn't shrinking!)
Weight - 17lbs 4.8 oz! Ugh!
The doctor liked the gain on paper (this is the most she has gained in quite some time), but does not like the fact that Layla's not catching up the way she should be. So we now have a new "recipe" for mixing her formula. Which...apparently she's not doing as well with the sippy cup as we thought.
We have nothing to base our assumptions on as far as how much she should be drinking as we've strictly nursed up until a month ago. She has really been guzzling it down each day. Or so we thought. I guess the doctor was surprised that she's only drinking 12-15oz. a day. Jeremy didn't think to ask how much she should be drinking. I will probably be calling in to the office early next week.
She only gets about one 5-6oz. cup down at daycare and then she drinks another 6-10oz. at home. We try to give her some in the morning before we leave, but it's never much. I feel like all she does is drink or eat when she's home so I'm not really sure what else to do. I do know that she (for some reason) doesn't seem to drink as much at daycare as she does on the weekends. I have a guess that it's because she eats drier foods here. However, she just started her big girl meal plan at daycare so I'm hoping we start seeing an improvement in her drinking (although there wasn't a huge one this week).
Regardless, I can definitely tell her legs have thickened up. Maybe she just needed an adjustment period and will now really pack on the weight. I hope so because if she isn't 20lbs by April 6 the specialist is going to see about running some tests. :-(
Head - 44 cm (if I remember correctly)
Height - 27 1/4 in. (not a lot of growth here...actually, according to the measurements at the specialist's a month ago she has lost 3/4in. in height...something's not correct b/c I'm positive she isn't shrinking!)
Weight - 17lbs 4.8 oz! Ugh!
The doctor liked the gain on paper (this is the most she has gained in quite some time), but does not like the fact that Layla's not catching up the way she should be. So we now have a new "recipe" for mixing her formula. Which...apparently she's not doing as well with the sippy cup as we thought.
We have nothing to base our assumptions on as far as how much she should be drinking as we've strictly nursed up until a month ago. She has really been guzzling it down each day. Or so we thought. I guess the doctor was surprised that she's only drinking 12-15oz. a day. Jeremy didn't think to ask how much she should be drinking. I will probably be calling in to the office early next week.
She only gets about one 5-6oz. cup down at daycare and then she drinks another 6-10oz. at home. We try to give her some in the morning before we leave, but it's never much. I feel like all she does is drink or eat when she's home so I'm not really sure what else to do. I do know that she (for some reason) doesn't seem to drink as much at daycare as she does on the weekends. I have a guess that it's because she eats drier foods here. However, she just started her big girl meal plan at daycare so I'm hoping we start seeing an improvement in her drinking (although there wasn't a huge one this week).
Regardless, I can definitely tell her legs have thickened up. Maybe she just needed an adjustment period and will now really pack on the weight. I hope so because if she isn't 20lbs by April 6 the specialist is going to see about running some tests. :-(
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Cold Turkey
Layla and I have gone cold turkey with nursing. I know it sounds harsh, but we were only on 2 nursings a day anyway (morning and night) and I haven't felt like those have been hugely successful as of late. A few days before her first birthday I really started thinking that I was ready to be done with nursing. I decided that her last day as an "infant" (a.k.a. under one) would be the last day of nursing.
Sunday came and I informed Layla that it would be her last day :-)
Monday came and there were no issues skipping the morning nursing. I took the day off and it was easy to just wake up and put her in the high chair to feed her breakfast with a sippy cup.
Monday evening came and I was really just wanting that time with her to "snuggle." I didn't realize that I would miss the physical contact like that. She never stops moving, and that has been the only time she would let me hold her in a snuggly position while still awake. Lately, though, even that was a struggle (which is why I knew we were both ready).
However, I caved to my desires and we nursed the evening of her birthday. I figured it wasn't bad...a little birthday treat. :-)
Tuesday morning was nice because I could get myself ready for work and didn't have to set aside time for nursing.
Tuesday evening I was feeling the desire to nurse again. I then started wondering what our evening routine was going to look like from here on out. Before, she would eat dinner, bathe if necessary, get into pajamas, sit on the couch with mommy & nurse, go into her room and listen to a bit of music as I held her and she calmed down even more to rest her head on my shoulder, and then put her in her crib to allow herself to fall asleep. Nursing was such an integral part of that routine. I wasn't sure how I could go from pajamas to bed with no transition. Then it came to me...
READ!
So we sat on a chair in her room and read a book together a few times over. I wasn't sure if this was the best transitional method because she was seemingly excited about the book and not relaxing as I had hoped. But I kept going, thinking the newness would wear off and over time she would eventually learn that this was quiet time.
We went to bed with no problems like usual!
Today I have felt "fuller" than I have in quite some time. The nagging thought of nursing at night was with me all day. But a part of me knew that once I sat down to nurse, I would once again be thinking how it's time to quit or wonder how I would ever transition if I couldn't do it now. So I pushed through.
Reading tonight was not quite as successful. She cried very heavily for a while as I held her in my lap to read - I think she wanted to play with the stuffed animals around the chair. Those will be removed tomorrow. :-)
While we were reading and she was crying, I noticed I started leaking!!!! I can't even remember the last time I leaked! Just another little thing to push me back to thinking of nursing at night only.
She finally calmed and started playing with and talking to the book again.
I stood up to sway to the music with her and she was crying yet again. I began leaking yet again. Ugh! I finally just laid her down in the crib and left.
She is currently crying/staying awake longer than she has in quite some time.
Her fighting to relax and me putting her in the crib before she rests her head on my shoulders isn't new...but all this crying tonight really makes me wonder...does she miss the nursing or is this just an off night???
Needless to say, I haven't caved since Monday evening. I'm sure that my milk production will end soon. Which leads to another question lingering around in my head...do I simply just stop and "dry out" or is there another method?
I sure hope there is no leakage tomorrow at work...I gave my sister all my bra pads!
I've never really had an addiction to anything, but I think I can now sympathize (on a much smaller scale) with those trying to fight one. I'm sure the thoughts/desires to nurse will increase over the next day or so. Hopefully once my supply decreases, and Layla and I get used to the new routine, my urges to nurse will also decrease.
I do wonder if I should have even stopped...I never told myself I was quitting at a year, never had a deadline, I just new I wanted to make it to at least a year. It just turned out that I really started thinking "I'm done" right around her first birthday. I do think we were both ready...but now I'm not so sure.
Okay...there's the "addiction" talking. I think we'll both be just fine :-)
**I'll post about her first birthday in the near future.
Sunday came and I informed Layla that it would be her last day :-)
Monday came and there were no issues skipping the morning nursing. I took the day off and it was easy to just wake up and put her in the high chair to feed her breakfast with a sippy cup.
Monday evening came and I was really just wanting that time with her to "snuggle." I didn't realize that I would miss the physical contact like that. She never stops moving, and that has been the only time she would let me hold her in a snuggly position while still awake. Lately, though, even that was a struggle (which is why I knew we were both ready).
However, I caved to my desires and we nursed the evening of her birthday. I figured it wasn't bad...a little birthday treat. :-)
Tuesday morning was nice because I could get myself ready for work and didn't have to set aside time for nursing.
Tuesday evening I was feeling the desire to nurse again. I then started wondering what our evening routine was going to look like from here on out. Before, she would eat dinner, bathe if necessary, get into pajamas, sit on the couch with mommy & nurse, go into her room and listen to a bit of music as I held her and she calmed down even more to rest her head on my shoulder, and then put her in her crib to allow herself to fall asleep. Nursing was such an integral part of that routine. I wasn't sure how I could go from pajamas to bed with no transition. Then it came to me...
READ!
So we sat on a chair in her room and read a book together a few times over. I wasn't sure if this was the best transitional method because she was seemingly excited about the book and not relaxing as I had hoped. But I kept going, thinking the newness would wear off and over time she would eventually learn that this was quiet time.
We went to bed with no problems like usual!
Today I have felt "fuller" than I have in quite some time. The nagging thought of nursing at night was with me all day. But a part of me knew that once I sat down to nurse, I would once again be thinking how it's time to quit or wonder how I would ever transition if I couldn't do it now. So I pushed through.
Reading tonight was not quite as successful. She cried very heavily for a while as I held her in my lap to read - I think she wanted to play with the stuffed animals around the chair. Those will be removed tomorrow. :-)
While we were reading and she was crying, I noticed I started leaking!!!! I can't even remember the last time I leaked! Just another little thing to push me back to thinking of nursing at night only.
She finally calmed and started playing with and talking to the book again.
I stood up to sway to the music with her and she was crying yet again. I began leaking yet again. Ugh! I finally just laid her down in the crib and left.
She is currently crying/staying awake longer than she has in quite some time.
Her fighting to relax and me putting her in the crib before she rests her head on my shoulders isn't new...but all this crying tonight really makes me wonder...does she miss the nursing or is this just an off night???
Needless to say, I haven't caved since Monday evening. I'm sure that my milk production will end soon. Which leads to another question lingering around in my head...do I simply just stop and "dry out" or is there another method?
I sure hope there is no leakage tomorrow at work...I gave my sister all my bra pads!
I've never really had an addiction to anything, but I think I can now sympathize (on a much smaller scale) with those trying to fight one. I'm sure the thoughts/desires to nurse will increase over the next day or so. Hopefully once my supply decreases, and Layla and I get used to the new routine, my urges to nurse will also decrease.
I do wonder if I should have even stopped...I never told myself I was quitting at a year, never had a deadline, I just new I wanted to make it to at least a year. It just turned out that I really started thinking "I'm done" right around her first birthday. I do think we were both ready...but now I'm not so sure.
Okay...there's the "addiction" talking. I think we'll both be just fine :-)
**I'll post about her first birthday in the near future.
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